The 2015 Stock Picking Contest Begins

For the last 4 years, I’ve hosted some of the best personal finance/investing blogs (and Financial Uproar) for a little stock picking contest. I once promised chips to the winner, but like that ever happened. So instead they get a ridiculously terrible prize, like a slightly used tube of Aim Toothpaste, specifically the one I keep around to clean my headlights.

We had our first lady winner of the contest last year, once and for all proving to all the men’s rights advocates that it’s officially no longer a man’s world. Next thing we all know women will be voting and wearing skirts that stop above the knee. OVER MY DEAD BODY.

This year I opened the contest up a little more, inviting some readers in on the action, as well as finding some new bloggers. There are almost 20 entries this year, so let’s get the ball rolling. I’ll list everyone else’s picks (with a little detail, if it was provided) and then go into a little detail about my own.

Save. Spend. Splurge.

Penn West
Pengrowth
Enercare
Dollarama

(“Boring stuff this year” she says. Not sure I’d count two mid-tier oil producers as boring, but I’m not about to argue with the defending champion.)

I thought Village Farms was cheap at $1.10 per share, but didn’t pull the trigger on it. One of my readers pointed out that there might be selling pressure from an insider who said he was going to sell a bunch of shares, and I wasn’t really bullish on the price of tomatoes. I pledged to wait until the stock fell below $1 per share.

And it did just that. Shares closed the year at $0.85 each. I don’t own this in real life yet, but that’s due to laziness and being busy over the holidays more than anything. By the time you read this my order for shares will be in.

You can read the linked to piece for more details, but I think Hudson Bay is stupid cheap because the market isn’t valuing its real estate. The now ex-CEO (and current Chairman) has been pledging for months that the company is about to spin out the stores into a REIT, which I think shoots the stock an easy 30% higher immediately. The retail results are pretty good too, especially in the U.S.

When I looked at the owner of the Winnipeg Free Press the stock traded at $4 per share. I liked the name but preached patience, thinking the stock would fall when the dividend inevitably got cut. It was paying a nickel per share per month, and I figured a cut to four cents.

I got the general call right, but I was surprised by the depth of the dividend cut, going all the way down to $0.08 per quarter. But still, it’s an 11% yield, and earnings should be enough to cover it. There are also a few possible catalysts, but mostly it’s just a contrarian play on an industry that nobody likes.

Don’t own any of this one yet, but I’m not opposed to buying it at these levels.

I thought Penn West was cheap at $4.10, when I bought shares for the first time for the Uproar Fund. I averaged down last week, picking up another 1,000 shares at $2.45. I think it’s ripe for a takeover from one of the majors, who could swoop in and offer $5 per share for it and snatch it up. Book value is $11.11 per share, and at least I got one last big dividend before it got cut to $0.03 per share.

I wasn’t sure about picking it because so many others have it, but it’s too cheap to ignore.

And there you have it. Feel free to mock any and all picks in the comments. Trash talk is also encouraged.